Each of Mary Robinson's six babies were perfect when they were born. So why
are the five who had the MMR jab autistic?
Daily Express Feb 2, 2001. From a Telegraph article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=002549632124328&rtmo=fsMqvqas&atmo=rrrrrrrq
&pg=/et/01/2/1/tlaut01.html

MARY ROBINSON likens the mayhem in her home to wartorn Beirut; it continues
from early morning until late at night. "The children don't play together.
They all want to be the centre of attention and they fight."
Any parent with young children might be tempted to describe their home like
that, but this is different. Five of Mary's six children, aged between three
and 13, aren't just difficult and demanding - they are autistic.
She takes it for granted that, every week, she must change wet beds, put
radiators back on the walls, repair the loo, retouch the paintwork, explain
the children's black eyes to teachers and apologise to other parents if her
children have bitten or kicked theirs. "What else can I do?" she shrugs.
The one thing she cannot do is relax. Thirteen-year-old Claire could be
wandering off, oblivious to danger; 11-year-old Tyson might be trying to
hatch raw eggs by sitting on them and Jordan, 10, could be in one of his
violent moods. Hayden, nine, who cannot speak, will be screaming for her
while three-year-old Leah is showing her a toy for the millionth time.
We meet while the children are at school, otherwise conversation would be
impossible. Looking at the prominently displayed photographs of their
angelic faces, the perfect order into which Mary has the sitting-room by
mid-morning and her calm exterior, it is hard to credit the chaos she
describes - or that she has a child who tells her: "When you are asleep, I'm
going to stab you with a bread knife."

Nights are hellish, with the children bouncing off the walls and swinging
from light-fittings. Weekends offer no respite: whereas other children go to
the park or play with friends, hers can't. "It's like running a care home
here," says her husband, John, "except we don't get any time off."
But they do insist on escaping to the amusement parks and animal sanctuaries
near their home in Hayle, Cornwall. Such expeditions call for steely nerves
as, wherever she takes the children, Mary hears people tutting about their
behaviour and saying: "Why did that woman go on having children if they are
all handicapped?"

Had those women time to listen to her story - or she to explain it - they
would learn that none of Mary's children started off autistic; they were
developing perfectly normally until something caused them to regress. Far
from being someone to criticise, Mary Robinson deserves infinite sympathy.
She allowed her case to be made public last week and now is at the centre of
The Great MMR Scare.

"I want to protect the children from too much attention," she says, "but I
could not believe it when I read that the Government is spending �3 million
on a campaign to make out that MMR is 'safe'. No one I know will allow their
child to have the triple vaccine, and since single vaccines are not
available, there will be epidemics of measles, mumps and rubella - and
children will die.

"It's all because of money. For the Government, it is cheaper to give the
immunisations together, so they aren't offering people a choice. When a
manufacturer is shown a single contaminated can of beans, the whole batch is
recalled yet, with MMR, the Government is quoting some questionable research
and not giving parents the benefit of the doubt."

As for the claims that autism has not increased, they leave her speechless.
"I was once a nanny and I used to work in a nursery. I know that there are
more autistic children around. When we go to special centres, I meet parents
who talk about their children behaving normally and then changing - and some
haven't even heard of the concerns over MMR."

Mary hadn't either when she had her children vaccinated. The triple vaccine
was introduced in 1988, so her eldest, Donna, who lives with her
grandparents, never had it; she is not autistic. The rest were immunised and
from that moment, in each case, she charts the onset of their problems.
In fact, only three of her children are included in the legal action being
brought by solicitors Alexander Harris against the five drug companies that
supply the vaccine. Claire had MMR too long ago to be admissible and
Jordan's case is complicated by prematurity, but Tyson, Hayden and Leah have
all had their medical records checked and legal aid has been provided to
bring their cases.

Other possible causes of autism can be ruled out. Mary was so anxious not to
have another problem child after Jordan that she had his genes tested and
later her own. No problems were found. Nor was any autism found in their
families - only asthma, often involved when MMR appears to have caused
problems.

Significantly, Hayden was given a brain scan as a baby - before he had the
MMR jab - and found to be normal. "Until he was 18 months, Hayden was a
lovely, placid child. At that age, he was saying: 'Oook, doggie'. But within
nine weeks of the vaccination, he had lost his speech and wouldn't let me
look at him; his whole personality changed."

Although reassured by the genetic tests, Mary was still keen to have another
girl when pregnant with Leah as Claire's problems seemed so much less acute
than those of the boys (although that could be because of her high
intelligence). When the longed-for girl was born, Mary was overjoyed and
everything went well until, two years ago, Leah had her MMR.

"By that time, there were rumours. Knowing that I had three sons registered
as autistic, no one in the medical profession drew my attention to the idea
that there was some concern. They said nothing. I find that unforgivable."
So Mary went ahead and allowed Leah to have the jab and history,
heartbreakingly, repeated itself.

"You feel you've lost your child; it's just like a bereavement," she says.
By this stage in our conversation, Leah has reappeared from her special
needs nursery. She is a charming child but her words come out strangely and
she rushes around frantically.

Mary was as baffled by the early signs of these changes in her hitherto
normal daughter as she had been by the onset of autism in her other
children. Then she picked up a magazine containing an article about a woman
with three autistic sons - and read about the concerns over MMR.

Immediately, she contacted Jabs, an organisation run by affected parents,
and was put in touch with the legal action group. "How likely is it that I
could have had five naturally autistic children?" she asked. The chance was
infinitesimal, she was told.

But Mary is not a campaigner. She doesn't have time for that, any more than
she can go to church to please the Mormons who keep coming round to pray for
her, or find time to train to be a social worker: "I couldn't find anyone to
look after the children, so I gave up."
All her considerable practical skills are devoted to giving her damaged
children as enjoyable a life as possible. "I told them all, early on, that
they are autistic and that everything they feel is normal for the way they
are. It's not fair, I tell them, that you have to try harder than other
children, but you'll get there."

She feeds them an additive-free diet and refuses to drug them to make them
more controllable. Nor will she take anti-depressants herself; when she
tried, she was shocked by the feeling of swimming through treacle.
Rather than spending the children's disability allowances on running the
house, she saves the money up for special toys - light pillars that produce
mesmerising bubbles, computers on which they can express themselves,
projectors that make patterns on the walls. Leah's room is a child's dream,
crammed with play equipment, none of which can be kept downstairs, as the
boys would destroy it.

And, despite the dents on the ceilings, the touched-up paint and scribble on
the walls, the house has a warmth to it. So does the garden, with its
aviary, rabbits and guinea pigs, trampoline and slides, all of which take
the edge off the hyperactivity that comes with autism.

Although she looks young for 38, the past few years have been gruelling for
Mary. Claire and Tyson's father left her when she was seven weeks pregnant
with Tyson; Jordan and Hayden's father left her when she refused to put the
boys in a residential home. Then she made an unsuccessful marriage: "In a
situation like mine, you are so glad of help, so desperate for company"

To escape her husband and find a home large enough for the children, she and
John, whom she married two years ago, have moved twice in quick succession.
John, I say, must be a saint taking on all these children as well as his own
daughter, Leah.
"He isn't," she replies. "He has a bad back, which means he can't work or
run after them and he can't stand it for long. But he does watch them for 20
minutes while I eat my dinner in the bedroom."

Since she began eating in peace, Mary has put on a stone and given up
smoking. She's pleased. "The stronger I am, the longer I can keep my
children at home."

Helping them is her over-riding concern and, every year, it gets more
difficult. "Jordan broods on his disabilities; Tyson has terribly low
self-esteem; Hayden I now accept will never talk. I just live each day at a
time," she says - never planning anything, her head constantly full of a
dialogue between the "angel" voice that encourages her to be patient and
understanding, and the "devil" which makes her want to scream and give up.
The future looks bleak. Claire, she hopes, will be able to get a job but
Tyson, she fears, will be in constant trouble as he has no notion of
property. She doubts if Jordan will be able to leave home and Hayden may
have to live in an institution. As for Leah, Mary won't know for several
years whether, like Tyson, she will develop Asperger's syndrome.
When things get too much, she turns on pop music and fantasises. "I would
love to go on a holiday without losing one of them, to be able to
communicate with Hayden, and have Leah get no worse.

"Above all, of course, I want to have my children back as they were - but I
know that can't happen."

--------------------------------------------------------
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA
Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & UK
530-478-1242 Voicemail
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (&
women) do nothing"...Edmund Burke